Jewish Finance

Beit Din

A beit din is a Jewish rabbinical court, usually of three judges, that rules on matters of Jewish law, including commercial disputes, divorce, conversion and the supervision of financial instruments such as the prozbul.

Dayan

A dayan is a judge of a Jewish rabbinical court, or Beit Din, who decides cases under Jewish law, including commercial and financial disputes, divorce and personal-status matters.

Gemach

A gemach is a Jewish communal fund or charity that lends money interest-free, or lends goods free of charge, to members of the community who need them.

Halacha

Halacha is Jewish law in its full sense, a system built up from the Torah and the Talmud, the later codes, rabbinic responsa and the practice of communities, with detailed rules on money and commerce.

Heter Iska

A heter iska is a Jewish-law agreement that structures a financing advance wholly or partly as an investment, so the provider can earn a profit share rather than prohibited interest on a loan.

Iska

An iska is a Jewish-law business partnership in which one party supplies capital and the other manages it, with the capital treated partly as a loan and partly as an investment held in trust for the provider.

Posek

A posek is a decisor of Jewish law: a rabbi whose answers to practical questions, including ones about commerce, lending and interest, draw on the Talmud and the later legal codes.

Prozbul

A prozbul is a rabbinic legal device, attributed to Hillel the Elder, that transfers a private debt to a rabbinical court so that it survives the cancellation of debts at the end of the sabbatical year.

Ribbit

Ribbit is the prohibition in Jewish law on charging or paying interest on a loan between Jews, covering both openly stated interest and many disguised forms of payment for the use of money.

Shmita

Shmita is the seven-year sabbatical cycle in Jewish law, in which agricultural land in the Land of Israel lies fallow and, at the end of the seventh year, many personal debts between Jews are released.

Tzedakah

Tzedakah is the Jewish religious obligation to give to the poor and support those in economic need, understood as a duty of justice and righteousness rather than optional generosity.